The Last Leg
Ferry to Cromarty Top of hill overlooking Loch Ness No sign of Nessie! Castle Stalker The Jacobite Too scarey to watch! The BenBit of a rough ride… The Falkirk Canal tunnelFarewell Bonnie Scotland We left Portmohomack and began our cross country trip to Oban via Loch Ness with a tail wind on a msity morning bound for Inverness. Our ferry at Cromarty was a 2 car affair and you could only just see the oil rigs and wind turbine ships moored in the bay shrouded in mist. A quick stop for a coffee and delicious Whisky fruit cake set us up for a very easy cycle to Inverness where we arrived,...
Read MoreWhere’s the station…
Getting home from JOG with a tandem isn’t easy. Most cycle tourers head to the nearest station and hop on a train which is obviously what we’re doing. The difference between most cycle tourers and us is they have single bikes and we have Tilly the Tandem. So whilst their nearest station is 25km away, ours is 450km away in Oban or even Edinburgh. So having finished the tour we have to start a new one to get to the station, not that we mind, we’re heading off to some of the most remote areas in Scotland followed by searching for the Loch Ness Monster as we do yet another...
Read MoreFlagged down by the Old Bill..
Leaving Ullapool we joined the dreaded NC500 – the North Coast 500 – a touring route full of motorhomes, motorbikes and cars. We’d not been looking forward to this bit at all. We’ve read nightmares about the traffic and even met a coach driver who said his company no longer do tours along it as the coach gets stuck on the single track sections as people park in the passing places. Anyway, it wasn’t as busy as we’d expected but was pretty hilly as compensation! Fortunately, leaving Ullapool, we turned off the road after 25km and headed inland to cross...
Read MoreRunning on Gin….
We set out on our first proper ride in the Hebrides on a brighter morning and began our island hopping trip along the Hebridean Way. Barra, our first island is quite tiny and we went clockwise around it in virtually no time to get the ferry on to Eriskay. We arrived at the port which was tiny slipway in time for a cream scone with cream from Devon, a pleasant reminder of the start of the journey a few months ago. We’d been chatting to a couple of cyclists on the ferry from the mainland who were on racing cycles and as the ferry left port we saw them approaching. The captain obviously...
Read MoreOnward to Castlebay
Heading north from Tarbert we had two options, follow the minor road around the coast on 3 sides of a square and over the hills or take the short Main road on the remaining side of the square. Knowing us it will come as no surprise to read that we took the shorter option and with the exception of one idiot lorry driver found the short ride fine along the picturesque coastal road. The lorry driver was a complete idiot. He came around a bend behind us too fast and hadn’t seen us prior to the bend and of course a lorry was coming the other way so he had virtually no room to pass us on the...
Read MoreWho needs Sunshine
We’re beginning to understand more about the Scots now weve been here a few days. Firstly, they don’t dress for the weather, they dress for the Month. So, pouring down, howling gale, a smidge above 14C and August and that will be flip flops, shorts and a t shirt then, whilst we admire their hardy nature from within 3 layers gloves and a hot chocolate. Or perhaps we’re just southern softies. Secondly they don’t like you saying hello to them when you cycle past. Well, most of them don’t anyway. I always say hello to pedestrians and cyclists as we pass them and...
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